Probably a few topics on this but wanted to rant a bit.
I’ve been driving in Japan for about 2 years now (mostly Tokyo area). I did the foreign license conversion (gaimenkirikae), so I was required to pass the driving test instructed by a police officer. I was lucky enough to pass on my first attempt, as I had studied up on the point system they follow. Funny enough only 2 of us in our 11 person group had passed that day (both of us being Japanese citizens/fluent speakers — this is a funny story for another time, as the other person that passed was an older woman that made a lot of errors from the start of the test…no turn signal from the start etc.)
After driving in Japan, I’ve realized a majority of drivers display pretty bad driving habits. Some examples below.
Quite common things I see
– no use of turn signals
– driving with their lights off at night, or their high beams permanently on
– no stopping at pedestrian cross walks (to be fair sometimes pedestrians are glued to their phone at crossings, so you can never tell if they are actually waiting to cross the street)
– 5-6 cars tailgating each other half a meter behind each driver at 100kmph+ on the highway (I actually saw a mass rear ending on the highway to Nagano last year)
– driving through red lights — 2-3 cars speeding up for a yellow light and then driving right through the red, sometimes 5 seconds after the light has already turned red
– drivers that weave between the left and right lanes during traffic, only to end up in the same position 10-15min later
– drivers parked directly in front or under a traffic light, or worse parked directly at the left turn or corner of that traffic light
– the worst I’ve seen is drivers that are waiting to turn right at some intersections. 2 way road, one lane turning left straight or right, and the other lane would be oncoming traffic (right lane). Drivers that are turning right will sometimes get stuck behind cars in front of them waiting to turn left or go straight, so they decide to briefly cross over the solid line, and drive around everyone using the right lane (on coming traffic lane). I’ve seen multiple occasions where they almost crash into oncoming traffic that is turning left into the right lane.
Just trying to figure out what causes people to drive like this in Japan. Of course I know there are bad drivers everywhere — im from NY so I know aggressive driving, but some of the driving in Japan makes it seem like it’s just a lack of basic knowledge/skill/safety (I.e. 5+ cars tailgating each other on the highway at 100kmph+).
Spoke with my partner who has a gold license (she hasn’t driven in 10+ years since her test, and is afraid of ever driving), and she believes it’s definitely an issue caused by Japanese driving schools. 99% of Japanese drivers receive their license from a driving school system in Japan , and it’s basically a pay to win system. You pay 200,000-300,000 JPY, take the courses, but for actual driving test everyone passes (if you mess something up, they just have you continue to rerun the test until you pass the same day — it’s instructed by a driving school employee rather than a strict rule focused police officer). Since everyone that goes to a driving school automatically receives a license at the end, I guess it’s no surprise there are so many mindless/bad drivers in Japan. Our conclusion is that most of the bad driving stems from these auto pass driving schools, so it would be an easy fix to just require everyone to take an actual pass/fail driving test, rather than the pay to win auto pass tests given at the driving schools.
I find the best part of all of this is that the police don’t seem to care or do anything about the driving habits that are building up in Japan. Instead most local traffic police are spending most of their time findings half faded 止まれ areas to monitor and give people tickets.
Just wanted to get everyone’s thoughts and experience on drivers in Japan
Bonus Point — Cars that tend to have bad drivers
-Toyota Prius, generally just doing everything wrong
-Alphard/family car drivers, not the worst driving, but I tend to see the most road rage/aggressive behavior from these guys
-kei cars/taxis, no awareness of any road rules
TLDR: drivers in Japan are bad (especially those that get their license through driving schools), police aren’t enforcing anything except minor stop zones to catch people, Prius and Alphard drivers suck.
29 comments
Drivers are people
People are bad
Oh man. I don’t even notice so much of this anymore, ha. Especially in Tokyo, everyone drives this way so everyone drives this way. It happens in other places too.
The thing that gets me is the kids not being buckled, little kids not being in car seats, babies in slings while mom is driving. It stresses me out to no end.
at least no one would pull a gun at you
They’re way better here than in nz, or south America as a whole.
People drive like assholes in every country
For me, the things that are weird also seem to be quite predictable: people will continue thru on the red, turn signals are an afterthought, swing right a little if making a left turn, etc, etc, etc.
I don’t do/mimic that stuff, but it’s easier to adapt to and accept the norms here than to go “gosh golly gee, can anyone help me figure this out?” It’s just the way it works (the cliché: It is what it is”).
Just be cool about it, drive defensively with all the local driving behaviors/quirks in mind, and spend your valuable time thinking about something else.
Auto pass driving schools? As someone who actually went to a driving school in Japan, I can assure you it’s not “auto pass”, I was stuck on the last step for at least 5 lessons because the instructors didn’t feel like I was “quite ready” for the driving test (I passed that on the first try, and the written on the second).
Not a Japan thing. Go anywhere and I’m sure you’ll find bad drivers with each place having a unique aspect of bad driving.
It does my nut in that if I follow the speed limit I’m some sort of arse. Case in point was going fifty in a single lane tunnel some truck over takes me while cars are coming. Everyone goes at least twenty over the speed limit, which o get is low but still!
I kid you not all of the points your brought up can applied in any major/mid sized city anywhere in the world.
I tend to agree, but the worst drivers I see in terms of speeding and tailgating are the Benz, Tesla, BMW, and Audis. I hate their guts. The grey Hiace also tend to be quite scary (and in my experience regularly try to murder me if I’m on my road bike).
The cops part also infuriates me. I got a blue ticket for a right turn forbidden between 7:30 and 8:30AM at an intersection not far from my home, ruining my gold license. I hadn’t seen the sign. Going back to the intersection, the sign is half covered by vegetation, and is completely hidden by a curve of the road as you approach the intersection.
Later as I went back to the intersection during that time frames I noticed a hidden police car lying in wait, while a policeman on foot was hiding behind an electrical pole. So yeah, they know people will mess up at that intersection, so they wait there.
I’ve seen places where people drive much more dangerously and/or aggressively than in Japan. Also: in addition to rules, every place has its unwritten code of road behaviour, and Japan is no different. Getting to understand these unwritten rules is at least as important as passing the basic tests. Having driven here on a number of occasions, I can say that generally, I feel very safe here. There are not many places I would say that about.
Down here in Kyushu, the problem is generally not aggressive drivers, but hesitant or careless drivers.
Where I’m from (UK), red lights are enforced by cameras, whereas here they’re as you described. Nobody stops on yellow, and some don’t even stop on red. I think some of this is down to the sheer number of traffic lights. Where I live is fairly countryside, and the number of traffic lights is ridiculous. Every junction must have one, some civil servant decided.
Very few drivers around here stop at pedestrian crossings. Some of that can be put down to the fact that the crossings are sometimes unmarked, or not marked very well, and especially at night when the street lighting is also very poor, you don’t know you’re at a crossing until you’re on it.
Then there’s the drivers who, rather than brake behind a car that’s turning left on a single lane road, will swerve around it instead. I have no explanation for that one at all. Seems like comparatively more effort to put yourself in danger.
And don’t mess with Probox drivers. Those fellas don’t own those cars so they don’t care about damaging them. And they’re late for something. And possibly messaging someone.
The no stopping at zebra crossings is the one that makes me so angry. A Mercedes driver (already clearly a complete cunt) almost cleaned myself but more importantly my pregnant wife up when we were already on the zebra crossing.
I was a bees dick away from chasing the prick down (I could see there was traffic about 300m away) and I also wasn’t fast enough to get my phone out and take a pic, not that the police would actually do anything.
So yeah, there is my rant.
People going too slow is my pet peeve! Like come on the limit is 50 so why are we doing 30
Having lived most of my life outside Japan, I’d say japanese drivers are much better than drivers in other countries.
If you got a license conversion, you didn’t have to study for the needlessly long and overly-complicated written test everyone has to pass when we do it from scratch. It’s a whole lot of cramming to remember all those details, and after all that work, the information leaks from the short-term memory right out the ear the second that license gets handed out.
Pretty sure I’ve seen taxi drivers do everything on this list within a span of two minutes
I grew up in Indiana. People there do everything you list. Whenever I visit home, I am horrified because it seems like they are driving *even worse* than the last time I was there. Visiting after COVID, I was surprised to see that evidently people don’t stop at 4-way stops anymore. They try to time it so they are first or last to the intersection and then just go through, only slowing down slightly.
People in Japan do have bad habits, but they are much much better than back home.
Sicily would absolutely win this argument. God they fucking suck over there with driving/cars
The high beams thing is absolutely infuriating – I’m not in Tokyo, but regardless of whether I’m driving in a city or out in the inaka, people just won’t turn their high beams off for oncoming cars. I’ve had to slow to almost a stop a few times (which is dangerous!) because I couldn’t see the road at all.
I find them overall better than Canadian drivers, and I’ve driven in both countries for more than 10 years. The Prius thing might be because of sheer numbers, but I’ll agree about the Alphards! Who pissed in their cornflakes?
I think the police avoid stopping someone during rush hour as it would cause major delays, so if you drive at those times I can see how it would seem like absolute lawlessness.
On the other hand, traffic accidents are relatively low, so maybe things don’t need to be changed. If they set the limit at 50 and everyone gets away with 80, it has a psychological effect that they are ‘winning’ or beating the system or whatever. It relieves stress for all the frustrated impatient drivers as they can creep past the slow ones and feel better about themselves.
I feel like this factor is built into speed limits. Raise it to 80 and everyone will do 110. I’m not saying it’s ok to speed, but safety and technology has improved and yet speed limits have been the same since forever. Hmm. The same ‘let-people-feel-like-they-are-getting-away-with-it’ logic could apply to running yellows (which also often relieves traffic for badly-timed lights), rolling through stop signs (actually safer if manual transmission, and better for your car and environment), or going over railway crossings without stopping (legal in many countries). Now if everyone came to this same conclusion, roads would be ultra dangerous, but there’s always a balance between the rule followers and breakers. Too strict and everyone will rebel. Too relaxed and the non-confident drivers will hurt themselves. I didn’t mean for this to become philosophical but thanks for reading!
My kids are the only ones in their kindergarten that I’ve seen in proper child seats. Most kids hop into the front seat without a seatbelt on and the parents drive off all smiles.
Add the Toyota Crown to the Alphard category.
You can see it in the number of traffic fatalities.
Tokyo 132 deaths Population 13.96 millionNew York, 254 deaths, population 8.46 million.
New York, which has a smaller population, has more accidents, so by all accounts, Tokyo is better off.
[https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/tokyo23/news/20230105-OYTNT50162/](https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/tokyo23/news/20230105-OYTNT50162/)
[https://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneysblog.com/2021-traffic-fatalities-in-new-york-at-their-highest-since-vision-zero-started/](https://www.newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneysblog.com/2021-traffic-fatalities-in-new-york-at-their-highest-since-vision-zero-started/)
My son got hit by a car at a zebra crossing on the way home from school.
3 friends and all had their arms up as they crossed as taught.
The driver just said “she didn’t see them, it must have been their fault”.
I’ve driven in many most big cities globally but I agree with many of what OP said. There is a higher sight of riskier driving here compared to other big 1st world cities. Mainly because their is little to no repercussions.
I just bought my first dashcam because I feel like it’s gotten worse over the years here in Japan.
Also because I’ve seen so many bicyclists run red lights, and I’m not playing “their word against mine”
Man, must depend on the place? I very rarely see the things described in my rural area. If it’s a bigger city it might just be like. More people, higher amount of bad drivers. I’m sure people notice the bad ones more than the majority of fine ones.
Question, did you ever drive back in your country? I’m from US, specifically California and I can tell you loads of people change lanes without using the turn signal. I find it much better in Japan where people use their turn signals. On the shutoko and highway the Hiace vans tend to be the jerks and cut you off. In the countryside the elderly people cut you off for going 10km above the speed limit. All in all nothing compared to Bay Area drivers in California and Los Angeles drivers.
Edit running red lights here is huge. They do it in front of the Koban and nothing happens. That’s the only absurd and wreck less driving I’ve seen driving through Japan.